Library Haul madness adds more spring to my readathon steps

Last month, I thought that taking four books out of the library was a large haul for me. Well, I now have five titles on loan(one of which is left over from last time and has been renewed) and this borrowing madness may continue to grow, I fear.

Fortunately, a couple of the books fit right into my Spring Into Horror readathon as much welcome late entries. One of them is Bloodstains with Bronte, the second in Katherine Bolger Hyde's Crime with the Classics series.

We rejoin our leading lady Emily Cavanaugh as she is the middle of turning the grand house she inherited from her great aunt into a writers' retreat. While hosting a murder mystery fundraiser for a local clinic, Emily is shocked to discover that one of the actors involved has been stabbed to death and the bloody knife has been found in the hand of her young housekeeper Katie.

Katie's possible motive for the murder could be connected to a pair of young men who happen to be on the renovation crew, one of whom is determined to be her Heathcliff in a Wuthering Heights type of romance. Emily is determined to clear Katie's name with or without the help of her now boyfriend and local sheriff Luke Edwards, who is also hoping that Katie is innocent as well.

I did enjoy the debut book in this series(Arsenic with Austen, which I also first found at the library) and seeing that this literary mystery train is still rolling on, I'm more than happy to climb aboard. Wuthering Heights is not my favorite Bronte novel but revisiting it via this light and lively mystery tale makes me have a bit of a kinder view towards that sad story:

Meanwhile, my non mystery library loans include Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue(which is an amazing read so far) and Baking Cakes in Kigali by Gaile Parkin, set in present day Rwanda.

Angel and her husband Pious have moved to the capitol city of Kigali to better raise their five grandchildren,orphaned by a sudden car crash. To keep their family finances afloat, she has taken up cake making, a business that connects her to many people, such as Ken, who loves to throw parties and his driver Bosco on the lookout for love.

She encounters a good number of folks needing more than just the right dessert as a few of them are in need of some friendly advice as well. Angel is pleased to share what worldly knowledge she has, despite nursing a private pain in her own heart. This does sound like an emotionally engaging read with sweetness that extends beyond the tasty cakes our heroine makes and I'm eager to sample a slice of life story such as this.

Talking about foodie mysteries the other week got me to checking out Cleo Coyle's latest Coffeehouse Mystery book,Dead to the Last Drop. This would be my first Cleo Coyle read but I feel that I'll be able to click with this well brewed crew quite easily.

New York coffee house manager Clare Cosi decides to check in on the DC branch of her Village Blend shop and winds up making friends with First Daughter Abigail Parker. Turns out Abby likes to play jazz piano and that lands the both of them a chance to spend time together.

However, when Abby is kidnapped, Clare instantly becomes a suspect in more than one crime and she might need the help of her NYPD beau Mike Quinn in order to clear up this mess. Well, Washington is certainly the place for highly caffeinated hi-jinks and Clare could have it worse; Paris Geller could be on her team and she's not the one to make political folks feel at ease there:

Five extra books are really not a lot in the grand scheme of things,reading wise, yet having another TBR to handle can be tricky. Then again, the more, the merrier, right? It's hard to resist the bookish bounty on those library shelves and as it turns out, this is National Library Week! What better way to appreciate this literary privilege than having a solid stack of loans by your reading side?

So, Happy National Library Week and if you can get on over to your local branch, do check out as much as you can. Libraries are an important part of our country's freedom to think and fun places to be to boot: